Agents of Socialization – Socialization (PSY, SOC)

Team work has always been found to be effective in solving problems faster and more effectively if the decision-making process is well organized. Therefore, any group or team might need to make decisions about performing a certain surgery for some patient, define their next research project, or financial decisions. The process of group decision making involves multiple individuals who try to act collectively to define the problem needed to be solved, define possible solutions, study and understand the possible methods and tools one can apply to solve the problem and finally define what should be done as a follow-up step to prevent future risks and uncertainties.

00:00
So have you ever wondered
why do you act the way you do?How do you know
what’s right and what’s wrong?These are some of the variables and factors
that we consider on socialization.
00:11
How do you input yourself into the society around you?So let’s take a look at some of the different factorsthat are involved in associate with socialization.
00:19
So it refers to the process of inheriting,so getting what you need to get from the different places
and will walk through that in just sec.
00:27
Learning these different things,
disseminating these norms meaningwhat have you learned passing that information on?What are some of the customs and
different values that you also pick up?So these are a whole bunch of
different variables and factors thatare involved in the process of socialization.
00:45
So this is the continuum,
this is the dynamic processso this isn’t something that you wake up
one day and you understandall the points that are needed to be socially at.
00:55
So I’m talking about a process
that happens from the moment you’re borninto the moment you pass away.
01:02
So different factors can influence
this process overtime.
01:05
So we call this Agents of Socialization.
01:08
The first one we are going to talk about is family,probably the most important agent
especially right from birth.
01:14
So this is where you’re family,
your parents, your brothers, your sistersthose around you helped shape you.
01:20
And they impart all the different
customs, beliefs, traditionsand all the things that they feel
are important that you should know.
01:27
So right from birth they
teach you –no don’t touch thatand you’re reaching for the plugs socket
and they start screaming “no, no, no, no”and when you go out and
the teacher say, “hello to your uncle”and you do those different things and
that’s because you’re being taught that.
01:41
That is how you interact with those
around you that’s how you socialize.
01:45
So there's a lots of literature, a lots of experiments
have been done on social experiments.
01:50
but one that I’m going to mention right now
is from a book called Outliers.
01:54
And this is from the author called Malcolm Gladwell,a Canadian who wrote a whole bunch of books
but in this specific bookhe looked at some of the drivers
behind what makes people successful.
02:05
He also looked at the differences
between those who aremore affluent to those who were not.
02:10
So blue-collar workers versus those
who are from sort of a richer family.
02:16
And they look at the interaction that
they have when they go to the doctor.
02:20
So you might want to think back to your childhood.
02:22
So when you would go to the doctor, did you just go in
sit down and let the doctor do their work,turn around with the prescription at hand and leave.
02:32
Or did you actually have an interaction with
the doctor where you start to asking questionsand wondering why you were taking
this medicine versus that medicine –well this is the differentiating factor
that he identified. And those he foundthat came from wealthier families were
actually prompted and taught to doand that they would ask the doctor questions.
02:52
And this sort of continuous and shapes the child
as it go on to question authority,asked questions, be more inquisitive
versus not asking questions,being more submissive and
just doing what you we’re told.
03:05
So if you think of certain families and you look at
–did your parents, mother or father or bothgo to higher education?Did they go to college or university?
Did they get a master’s degree or PhD?Or were they content just entering
the workforce or working in a factoryor doing something that we might consider
a little bit lower on the socioeconomic scale?What we find is those individuals
who come from a familywhose parents went on to higher education
typically will follow that trend.
03:36
and part of that is because they’re
prompted and shaped to followsort of in their parent’s footsteps.
03:42
And again, this is shaping the socialization
that you tend to follow.
03:48
Another factor which continuous
becomes more and more prominentas you get a little bit older is the peer group.
So the people around you,your friends, the people you hang out with.
03:57
so as you get older you realized you spend
more time at school than you do with your own family.
04:02
and that is where you start
to understand things likefashion and what’s cool, what’s not,
how do you interact with the opposite sex?what is your gender role?So think of your high school days and
you start to form these different cliquesor groups where you say, this is the groups
that plays a lot of sports or the jocks.
04:21
here are the Science nerds or here are
the heavy metal head bangersor here the techno dancers. Whatever you have
the different groups that you haveand you start to understand,
well, how do they interact within that group?More generally as a complete subgroup of just students
you understand ways of talking and communicatingversus say how you interact with your parents
or you interact with the doctoror you interact with somebody sitting
on the bus.
04:47
And so this is the really important time in your life,
it’s a very important time in terms of understandinghow you socialize.
04:54
It also starts to showcase your different selfs
and this will be coming up in other lectureswhere we talk about your social self
or your workplace selfversus your family self
versus your peer group self.
05:06
And each of these self refers to how you act
and interact and socialize within that circle.
05:12
The next is Workplace. So, again this continues
becomes more and more prominent as you get older,as you get older you leave the school space
and you hang out less with your social friendsand you get into that workplace environment.
05:25
And there your understanding
what we called Informal norms.
05:28
So this are norms of things
that you can do in the workplacemore generally things that you don’t do in the workplace
versus what you do say with your friends.
05:37
So don’t try this but one day if you show up
at work and you’re not wearing pants,they might say,
“Tarry you probably should be wearing pants”And you say, “Well, yes I should know this
because I understand workplace norms”as opposed to saying, “Well, nobody told me”
so you understand some of this basic things,you kind of learn not to swear at work,
you learn that you can't set ityour dress asking get drunk.
05:58
These are things that you maybe do
at home with your friendsor with your family but you really
don’t do these things at work.
06:04
So it’s not that somebody implicitly told you
these are things you need to do,these are things that you pick up
through being in that environment.
06:11
It also helps shape your personal identity.
So what is my way work self look like.
06:15
You might probably find this at workor at school even when you’re young child
your parents would come into Parent-Teacher interviews.
06:24
And they would say, “You know Mr. Johnson
your child, Dave is fantastic at school.
06:30
He's a great listener, always asking
questions, always involved.”And you’re scratching your
and said “My son Dave, my son Davewho doesn’t get out of bed,
doesn’t do any work, doesn’t talk to me,never cleans his house room
or anything, barely eats. That Dave?”And you’re like that’s the Dave.
06:46
Two different complete individuals and seems like
even they’re the same personthey have different identity based on where they are
because of what they’ve learnedin terms of socializing in that space.
06:57
Now the last one that we’re going
to mention is quite important is mass media.
07:03
So this is something that is really becoming
more prominent over the past decade.
07:07
And that we really inundated with
different types of media.
07:10
So if we backtrack a little bit
pre-Facebook, smartphone dayswe would get a lot our information
through movies and books.
07:19
And I would say in the 80s, 90s the biggest thing
to really splash the societysocietal areas was video games. And we started to see
an increase in violent tendencies and fights, altercationsand changes in the social behavior
towards a more violent society.
07:36
A lot of times affiliated with those who
are playing the videos that were violentwhich tend to be little boys.
07:41
So all of a sudden they notice the school why are kids,
why are young boys fighting more,why they’re acting out this video games
they’re playing inand they kind of answer their own question
is that’s it’s the video games.
07:51
And so this has been an ongoing debate people saying,
“You can't blame violent actionsand behaviors directly to video games.”But I think most would agree that that definitely
has impacted and increase in the violent behaviors.
08:04
It might not be the only factor but
it’s definitely a contributing factor.
08:08
So that is really important.
08:10
Now let’s flip that and look at say, young girls.
08:14
How do young girls realize or start to act
in a way that they feel is gender appropriate?So why is that a little girl’s kind of resonate
towards being a princess and wanted to wear tiaraand putting on their pink dress.
08:27
Now, sure maybe some young boys
like to do that as well and you go right aheadbut a lot of the young girls
seem to resonate towards that.
08:35
and that might be because of say the whole
Disney phenomenon of Cinderella.
08:39
and then the Cinderella books and Snow White
and Sleeping Beauty,she is quite docile and very, very sweet
and wears all these pretty dressesand it’s not a coincidence that this socialization
is the behavior that they’re seeingrelates to what these young girls are doing.
08:55
Now, some would argue
where actually causing stereotypes.
08:59
and that’s a whole another lecture in itself.
But in terms of how we socialize,they feel like were skewing them towards
inappropriate behavioror a behavior where we [0:09:07,8] them.
09:09
So I’m updating to say the last few years
those of you who were parentsand have the pleasure of watching
Frozen a 1000 timeswill see that they kind of switched the roles here
and they’ve made these young characters,these young female characters, Anna and Elsa,
my two favorite ladies into positive role models.
09:26
and instead of being the damsel in distress,
these are now the main characters of the moviewho are quite strong, independent.
09:32
And they’re trying to appreciate the fact
that –yes mass media, social media.
09:37
and this medium of movies can impact
individuals and their behaviors.
09:42
and so why not make it a positive one.
09:44
And the last point I’m going to end on
is something you really can't get away fromthat social media, the Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest
all these different thingsare really shaping how we socialize with others.
09:57
A lot of people in this younger age category
now would much rather just text somebodyversus picking up the phone or even physically
walking over and talking to somebody.
10:07
And it’s so much easier to throw a 5-word texts
versus saying, “Hey, how are you?What’s going on today? How are you feeling?”On Facebook, we create this identity for ourselves
about perfect picture will take 10 selfies,choose the best one or make sure
I’m looking great and all of my profile picsversus how do I really look?
what am I really like?And so how am I interacting
and socializing with others?And the last point I’m going to end on
is our sort of social network.
10:34
and how that’s influence the mass media?On Facebook, a lot of times you gauge
a person’s popularity and how social they arewith the amount of people that are
in their social network.
10:44
How many friends do you have?
Oh you only have 300 well I have 700.
10:48
Therefore, I’m much more popular
and I have a larger social network.
10:52
But what we’re not getting is the quality
of the relationships and interactions.
10:57
and the socialization versus quantity.
11:00
So in the past, if you had 10 great friends,
you were very, very lucky.
11:04
And today you have 700
not so great digital friends.
11:08
So all different things to consider,
all different things that shapeand influence are socialization.

About the Lecture

The lecture Agents of Socialization – Socialization (PSY, SOC) by Tarry Ahuja, MD is from the course Social Processes That Influence Human Behavior.

Included Quiz Questions

How do parents influence their children according to the socialization theory?

Teach customs and values.

Influence gender role and behavior.

Influence behavior through informal norms.

Compare behavior of children to others in similar age group.

Teach workplace etiquette.

Which of the following is NOT a factor in socialization?

Genetics.

Customs.

Inheriting.

Learning.

Values.

Which agent of socialization would be important for a 16-year-old high school sophomore?

Peers.

Pediatrician.

Siblings.

Coworkers.

Teachers.

Which agent of socialization influences behavior the most through informal norms in a 26-year-old joining a new job?

Workplace.

Facebook.

Movies.

Parents.

College friends.

Which of the following correctly defines Socialization?

The way in which an individual learn and recreate knowledge, skills, motivates, values and role that are appropriate to their position in society or group.

The way in which an individual enters a society.

The way in which an individual re-enters a society.

The way in which a group of people learn skills and values.

The way in which an individual learn and recreate knowledge, skills, motivates, values and role that are appropriate to their position in their family or religion.

Language is one of the most important component of a child’s psychological development or primary socialization. In terms of socialization, which of the following would you think a child would go through if primary socialization driver such as language is largely absent?

A child would fail to successfully undergo a complex socialization and learn about norms, standards and vales of the society.

A child would be experiencing speech difficulties.

A child would be unable to comprehend a message.

A child would fail to undergo complex socialization.

A child will become socially isolated.

Author of lecture Agents of Socialization – Socialization (PSY, SOC)

Tarry Ahuja, MD

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